


Four Words

by eurydice72



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M, Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-02
Updated: 2014-11-02
Packaged: 2018-02-23 20:26:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2554481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eurydice72/pseuds/eurydice72
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set immediately after Intervention. Buffy considers the First Slayer's words.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Four Words

**Author's Note:**

> Written for effulgent_girl for her Trick or Treat drabble.

Four words should not have been so impossible to figure out, but they wouldn’t leave Buffy alone as she curled up in her bed and watched the stars wink in and out through the window. Taking them apart didn’t do her any good. Each word made sense on its own. It was the putting them back together she couldn’t wrap her brain around.

Death wasn’t a gift. A gift was kicky boots or cash from your Aunt Ellie or a big box with a sparkly gold bow. It wasn’t lying still on a couch or being lowered into the ground or leaving people behind to wonder how they were ever going to get through the next day without you.

Nobody’s life ever got better by dying.

Well, Spike might not agree with that.

What was it he’d said about Dru? _She delivered me from mediocrity._ He believed that, too. Regardless of what kind of vamp he was now, Spike had seen William’s death as a good thing.

A gift to be cherished.

Something real.

Like what he’d done for her and Dawn with Glory.

* * *

Two nights later, she sat on her front step, arms hugging her knees to brace against the cold, when Spike sauntered up the walk. While bruises still mottled his face, the swelling was mostly gone, both blue eyes watching her warily as he came to a stop.

“Heard you wanted to see me,” he said.

“Yeah. I wondered if you were up to patrolling tonight.”

He glanced over his shoulder, then looked back at her with a cocked brow. “You do know I was already in the best place for that, yeah? Could’ve saved me a trip if you’d just told me to take a spin around the cemetery.”

She kept her gaze steady. He wasn’t going to ruffle her that easy. “I thought we’d do it together.”

The look on his face wasn’t as surprised as it had been when he realized she’d been the one to kiss him the other day and not the Buffybot, but it was pretty damn close. He managed to snap out of it sooner, too, shoving both hands into his coat pockets as he straightened.

“Probably best we’re both on the hunt anyway,” he said. Too nonchalant and cocky, but well, that was Spike.

She stood and turned back to the house. “Let’s suit up.” On the threshold, she paused, took a deep breath, and looked over her shoulder to see he hadn’t moved from his spot yet. “Come on in, Spike.”

Buffy didn’t wait to see his reaction. She’d already made up her mind this was the right thing to do. It hadn’t been a mistake to do the uninvite spell, but Spike had earned his place at her side again, demonstrating without his usual braggadocio that he would go to whatever length necessary to protect her and Dawn.

She refused to believe death was her gift.

But Spike just might be.


End file.
